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Rebecca Campbell

Rebecca Campbell is Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor for Engineering News and Mining Weekly.

By African standards, SA has bungled its Covid vaccination campaign
30th April 2021 By: Rebecca Campbell

I have some numbers for you. According to the Statista website, as of April 13, Morocco had administered 8 650 872 doses of Covid-19 vaccine. The figure for Nigeria was 964 387, for Ghana 742 349,... 


Future for PGMs may not be as rosy as currently hoped
29th January 2021 By: Rebecca Campbell

Although there have been major political developments this past month, both at home and abroad, I have decided to focus this column on a key modern technology area: hydrogen fuel cells. These are... 


Maputo refuses to face reality in Cabo Delgado, but SA must prepare for conflict
11th December 2020 By: Rebecca Campbell

For the third column in a row, I am focusing on the conflict in the north-eastern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado. This is because it poses a threat to the whole of Southern Africa, including... 


War in Moz is getting worse and Maputo can’t handle it
27th November 2020 By: Rebecca Campbell

In my last column, I examined how the current conflict in Mozambique’s province of Cabo Delgado had come into being. To very briefly reiterate what I wrote in September, the Islamist insurgency is... 


Storm has broken in Moz
25th September 2020 By: Rebecca Campbell

It was Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky who famously and caustically remarked that “[you] may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you” (or words to that effect: I am quoting from... 


Insurers endangering a whole economic sector
31st July 2020 By: Rebecca Campbell

Once upon a time, there were people who honestly thought that the South African private sector maintained higher standards of honesty and ethics than the country’s public sector. And then the... 


Small is beautiful, and could transform SA’s nuclear energy sector
29th May 2020 By: Rebecca Campbell

Early this month, while briefing Parliament, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe dropped a bombshell. He announced a commitment to develop a roadmap for a programme to build new... 


The grim and terrible balancing act between fighting Covid-19 and protecting the economy
24th April 2020 By: Rebecca Campbell

Covid-19: anxiety is everywhere. We are all concerned about our friends and colleagues who are at high risk. And there is the stress of the lockdown itself. It is a darkly humorous thought that... 


Covid-19 – it’s serious and things will never be the same again
27th March 2020 By: Rebecca Campbell

Talk about living in “interesting times”! Actually, these would be better described as extraordinary times. Coming to work on the morning I wrote this column, I found that the normal traffic had... 


Does nuclear have a future in South Africa?
28th February 2020 By: Rebecca Campbell

Will South Africa ever build a new nuclear power plant (NPP)? Well, and I hope the revelation doesn’t ruin the dramatic flow of my narrative, I haven’t a clue. I don’t think anyone does. There is a... 


UK displays optimism about Africa’s future at summit
31st January 2020 By: Rebecca Campbell

January 20 saw the UK-Africa Investment Summit in London, attended by representatives of 21 African countries, including the Presidents of Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda. That... 


Regulatory, financing snags curbing SA aviation
6th December 2019 By: Rebecca Campbell

The past few weeks have seen a series of important conferences in South Africa, as far as the aerospace and defence sectors are concerned. And the aerospace and defence sectors are a significant... 


Guys, we’re really, really angry and we want action
27th September 2019 By: Rebecca Campbell

Earlier this month, I got caught up in a traffic jam, in Sandton. I was in my car on my way to an appointment. And the traffic had effectively halted. Progress involved inching forward, but with... 


Back to the PBMR?
30th August 2019 By: Rebecca Campbell

On August 20, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe made some interesting comments to journalists, regarding future nuclear energy in South Africa. “It comes back to a resolution we... 


The dragon is ageing, fast
26th July 2019 By: Rebecca Campbell

In my previous column, I explained that, contrary to the impression created by sloppy analysis and lazy use of terminology, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), while being one of the most... 


The dragon is not as strong as is commonly thought
28th June 2019 By: Rebecca Campbell

There is a habit, among too many people, here and abroad, to lazily categorise China as a superpower, implying parity and balance vis-à-vis the United States. And yet the truth is that China is not... 


SA Constitution not designed to handle hung Parliaments
26th April 2019 By: Rebecca Campbell

South Africa’s next general election will, provided no catastrophe intervenes, take place on May 8. That is only days away. Naturally, it is one of the dominant domestic stories in the media, with... 


SA entering a very scary socioeconomic corner
29th March 2019 By: Rebecca Campbell

Despite the concerns of Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, South Africa’s 2019 budget saw a real-terms increase in Government spending. Gross national debt will increase to about 60% in the financial... 


All political roads lead to Rome – again
25th January 2019 By: Rebecca Campbell

One of the enduring political-cultural legacies of the French Revolution (erupted 1789) was the adoption of the political terminology, and the concomitant division of politics, into “left” and... 


Explanations and experts
14th December 2018 By: Rebecca Campbell

Hi! I’m back. First of all, I don’t think I can just pass over the absence of my column during the last two months without a word of explanation. The explanations are quite simple: in October I was... 


Musings on the local aerospace and defence industries
28th September 2018 By: Rebecca Campbell

Last week saw the latest edition of Africa Aerospace and Defence, still the continent’s premier exhibition in this sector, attracting exhibitors and visitors from all over the world. And,... 


MeerKAT highlights importance of funding
27th July 2018 By: Rebecca Campbell

The official inauguration of the 64-dish MeerKAT radio telescope array in the middle of this month was a wonderful landmark in the history of both science and technology in South Africa. It marked... 


Let’s get the questions right on police reform
29th June 2018 By: Rebecca Campbell

One of the striking things about South Africa is how little interest the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has shown in transforming certain key institutions the country. Oh, there have been... 


Lost in space?
25th May 2018 By: Rebecca Campbell

Analysts say that the planet Earth’s rapidly-growing space economy could hit $600-billion by 2030 and $1-trillion by 2040. Clearly, the space economy, worth some $350-billion today, is growing... 


Syrian storm puts SA in uncomfortable company
27th April 2018 By: Rebecca Campbell

On April 7, Douma, in Syria, was subject to what appears to have been a chemical weapons attack. The Syrian Government has an independently-established (by the Organisation for the Prohibition of... 


Winter is coming – as the global Game of Thrones comes back to life
30th March 2018 By: Rebecca Campbell

There is a well-known slight misquotation of Karl Marx: History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. In the past few weeks, in international relations, we have seen... 


Zuma is, alas, not an aberration
23rd February 2018 By: Rebecca Campbell

Well, Jacob Zuma is no longer President of the Republic of South Africa, following his “recall” (in effect, order to resign) by his political party, the African National Congress (ANC). The raid on... 


New year, new beginnings, new gender . . .
26th January 2018 By: Rebecca Campbell

Hi, and Happy New Year! You will no doubt have noticed a new bye-line and a new photo with this column. But the brain is the same, the knowledge is the same and the writing style is unchanged. But... 


Tax, spend, squander provide toxic backdrop for nuclear plans
24th November 2017 By: Keith Campbell

On November 7, France ran out of money. Or, rather, France ran out of its own money; that is, it ran out of all the money the French State had gathered in taxes and other imposts. Between November... 


The unremarked threat
27th October 2017 By: Keith Campbell

Well, one must admit it was rather apposite timing. Only 12 or so hours after the closing of the country’s first Homeland Security Africa Conference (in Pretoria), gunmen in a car driving through... 


Radical? Really?
29th September 2017 By: Keith Campbell

Roughly in the middle of this month (September), speaking on the sidelines of the Annual General Meeting of his luxury goods businesses holding company, Switzerland-based Compagnie Financière... 


America’s President needs to stand for American values
25th August 2017 By: Keith Campbell

The apparently never-ending culture wars in the US are ceasing to be depressing and becoming downright alarming, reaching a new low in the recent murderous terrorist-attack-by-vehicle in... 


Rougher waters in the Indian Ocean while SA behaves like the ostrich
28th July 2017 By: Keith Campbell

To holidaymakers the Indian Ocean usually appears a balmy body of sea. But, over the horizon, out of sight, great political forces are moving across the ocean and its subsidiary seas and gulfs,... 


Keep the dragon of inflation on its chain
30th June 2017 By: Keith Campbell

One of my most vivid memories is the time, years ago during the period of hyperinflation in Brazil, when my late wife (who was Brazilian) and I were on holiday in that country, and it came time to... 


Down with State security! Long live national security!
26th May 2017 By: Keith Campbell

Why does South Africa have a Ministry of State Security? (The official South African Government website refers to it as a Ministry, although it is also officially referred to as a Department.) Let... 


Independent agencies can have teeth and autonomy
28th April 2017 By: Keith Campbell

Some South Africans, with some knowledge of events in Brazil, have expressed a degree of envy at the successful impeachment, last year, of the President Dilma Rousseff. This was, in fact, the... 


Laptop bomb threat is real and expect restrictions to go global
31st March 2017 By: Keith Campbell

Just about 15 months ago, on February 2, 2016, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb onboard an Airbus A321 airliner of Daallo Airlines some 15 to 20 minutes after it took off from Mogadishu Airport.... 


Diplomatic doldrums for Pretoria?
24th February 2017 By: Keith Campbell

While much local media attention has been devoted to US President Donald Trump, there has been something that, from a South African perspective, was much more important. This was the outcome of the... 


Post-Brexit Britain, like China, recommits to globalisation
27th January 2017 By: Keith Campbell

The speech delivered on January 17 by British Prime Minister Theresa May on her government’s negotiating objectives for Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU) – “Brexit” – contained nothing... 


The great autocrat
16th December 2016 By: Keith Campbell

One of the highest points of my career as a journalist happened, back in 1994, when I interviewed then Cuban President Fidel Castro, in Pretoria. He was attending the inauguration of President... 


Trumped by the Hunger Games
25th November 2016 By: Keith Campbell

Well, you can’t say I didn’t warn you. Now that we have US President-elect Donald Trump I feel entitled to remind you that, in my previous column, when many were assuming that rival candidate... 


The US faces an ‘interesting’ election and SA should be prepared
28th October 2016 By: Keith Campbell

Well, we are definitely living in interesting times, at home and abroad. China, under the leadership of Xi Jinping, has adopted a nationalist assertiveness in the East and especially South China... 


Reassurance in a stormy world
30th September 2016 By: Keith Campbell

After a review that lasted some two months, British Prime Minister Theresa May gave the go-ahead for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant (NPP), which will be built by a partnership between... 


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